Eastern Illinois men’s basketball head coach Marty Simmons has announced the addition of Rich McBride as an assistant coach on the Panthers staff along with a change in roles for assistant to the head coach Bob Lockart.
McBride comes to EIU after coaching last season on the staff at Lincoln University (Mo.). He helped coach the team to 17 wins as three players earned All-MIAA honors with guard Artese Stapleton collecting first team All-American honors.
No stranger to the area, McBride played at Illinois where he earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors in 2007 and was a member of the Fighting Illini’s 2005 NCAA Final Four Team.
“We welcome Coach McBride back to Central Illinois,” said Simmons. “His experience both as a player at the highest college level and as a coach at several different levels will be of great value to the young men in our program. I’m excited to get to work with him and our entire staff this season.”
McBride began his coaching career as the head coach Cairo (Ill.) High School with additional high school stops at Green County HS (Kentucky) and Springfield Lanphier HS. He broke into college coaching on the staff at Illinois Springfield from 2014-16 followed by three years as an assistant coach at Minot State. During his time at Minot State he helped coach the team to a 20-win season in 2018.
Following his time at Minot State, McBride coached at Moberly Area CC from 2019-21 helping guide the team to an appearance in the NJCAA National Tournament. He worked one season as a graduate assistant coach at Missouri before joining the staff at Lincoln last year.
McBride is a 2019 inductee into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame and earned his bachelor’s degree from Illinois. In the summer of 2016 he was selected as an NBA Skills Trainer in San Francisco.
Lockart was a long time successful high school coach winning more than 400 games in his head coaching career. A 2020 IBCA Hall of Fame inductee he worked as the assistant to the head coach for the Panthers last season. This season the NCAA increased the number of countable coaches for several sports including men’s basketball so Lockart will move into an assistant coaching role with on floor coaching duties now allowed.
https://eiupanthers.com/news/2023/8/4/mcbride-joins-eiu-mens-basketball-staff.aspx
